What if...

[Lillia]

Pretty much this. While HP regen might not be a great idea since it would either be too powerful or too weak, there are a lot of "holes" in what bard classes in other games can do that the bard job in this game can't.
Haste, resistances, accuracy and a physical damage debuff immediately spring to mind. The Mudra mechanic can easily be tweaked and adopted for the Bard job for at least adding some elemental resist songs.
But then again even for being a "boring" class, Bard is pretty powerful and valuable simply due to their mobility, so this would probably be something for 3.0.

that'd be great if we actually needed the elemental resistance for any content. :/

Edit: and anyone who doesn't have the acc, probably shouldn't be doing that particular content.... can you imagine how sucky that'd be? "Sorry out of MP!" *Acc goes down under content requirement* "Lillia Hope missed Heavy Shot" 5x

Haste is.... a nice thought, won't lie but... I don't see it required, once again. >.< We can finish content without that thus far, so it's sorta proven as a luxury. (Theres a lot of phys dmg debuff going around with a war/nin now.) @-@

[StouterTaru]

Haste, HP regen, accuracy, defense, elemental resistances... There's a lot of potential to make bard a class that actually uses songs.

[Duelle]

Haste

Broken one way or the other. Might work if you decided to turn it into Bloodlust/Heroism but then you'd have no room for Time Mage, as Hastega would have to be implemented akin to Bloodlust/Heroism to fit in the game.

HP regen

Let's leave healing to the actual healers, please.

accuracy

Not needed because (thankfully) accuracy is not a rare stat like it was in FFXI.

defense

This would be horribly clunky.

elemental resistances

This would work better as part of a different job with mechanics to support it. Not to mention it would have to follow the model for Apocatastasis to be useful (while also sharing the same debuff).

[Parz3val]

Love this idea. Fits the Job perfectly.

Mechanically, it could be slightly different than Mudra's.

Think like Sona where you blast out effects & every fourth is essentially "Battle Voiced" or producing a different bonus effect.

Or carrying notes until a song is "completed", each note layering an effect expiring or being bolstered once the song is finished.

Lots of ways to make it not a rip of Mudra's but it's own unique system for piecing together songs.

It's not overly complicated either honestly.

[Empressia]

Love this idea. Fits the Job perfectly.

Mechanically, it could be slightly different than Mudra's.

Think like Sona where you blast out effects & every fourth is essentially "Battle Voiced" or producing a different bonus effect.

Or carrying notes until a song is "completed", each note layering an effect expiring or being bolstered once the song is finished.

Lots of ways to make it not a rip of Mudra's but it's own unique system for piecing together songs.

It's not overly complicated either honestly.

This game is a WoW clone not LoL clone lol

[Draucant]

If it were to happen, I think songs would fundamentally work differently. For example, you could only play two songs a minute, but it lasts say 30 secs. Maybe you no longer have the -25% DMG reduction but different songs consume different amounts of MP.

As for different songs besides the TP/MP song they could have skill/spell speed % like the NIN one, DEF/M.DEF+, maybe even add single target songs that increase STR/VIT/INT/etc.

[Lillia]

If it were to happen, I think songs would fundamentally work differently. For example, you could only play two songs a minute, but it lasts say 30 secs. Maybe you no longer have the -25% DMG reduction but different songs consume different amounts of MP.

As for different songs besides the TP/MP song they could have skill/spell speed % like the NIN one, DEF/M.DEF+, maybe even add single target songs that increase STR/VIT/INT/etc.

I think that is too OP and feel it'd make bard required for any content but who am I to say no. I personally do like bard and I feel that makes me biased.

I feel like it we didn't have -25% dmg then we'd just over the top have infinite TP with DPS out the butt making us a lot better than other DPS no offense. Maybe we can't pull all the DMG a drg or mnk can but they run out of TP even with invigorate. I also feel like bard supports every single role with one song going to each role so... we're basically the perfect support for a price.

That's what I meant by we don't need it, it's just some changes that are wanted by some.

I get bard isn't the same bard as it was in past games but I also like changes, I don't mind not being the same bard that we had over and over and over (with some different songs) who just sings and sits there with no real power other than their voice/instruments. :/

In the long run, I do believe we will get some more songs when the time is right. But right now I don't feel like it's actually needed when I am on bard because I can actually support and help my groups just find even with 25% dmg reduce.

And yes bard is someone who uses their voice/instruments but that doesn't mean it has to be all a bard is.

I know people will disagree with me, that's fine. I am not up for a fight about whose opinion is better or should be heard over the other but this is what I think on the matter.

[saber_alter]

I think that is too OP and feel it'd make bard required for any content but who am I to say no.

its not as if bard is pretty much a staple class for raiding already >.>

[Lillia]

its not as if bard is pretty much a staple class for raiding already >.>

It's nice, but not needed. if it was then players wouldn't of gotten past T6-7 and other turns without bard. Granted T8 is questionable but I think it's really underestimated on what can and can't be done in this game.

Edit: And I raided before to T9. ^-^ no need to explain how hard stuff is without bard.

[Cynric]

No let's make it into a rhythm game !